Call to train workers on business

THE public sector needs to have serious exit strategies for the civil service, says PNG Human Resource Institute president Jerry Wemin.
One way to rejuvenate the public service is to have a fixed-term contract, he said.
Public servants with more than 20 years’ service should be trained in business and assisted to go back to their villages to do business and pursue other economic and social interests, Wemin said.
“This will be good for the country as there will be an abundant supply of competent and experienced professionals everywhere, in all sectors, to drive economic development,” he said.
“Many public servants are allowed to stay too long that they are no longer employable after they leave the public service.
“With high dropouts from schools and fewer tertiary-level placement opportunities, PNG is a time-bomb waiting to explode in time. Employment opportunities is scarce due to the slow recovery of the PNG’s economy.
“The only medium-term plan should be for government to promote more self-employment rather than formal-sector employment. Self-employment promotion would ensure low cost and quicker engagement of citizens in the economic production and development of the country.”
The current scenario is 20 per cent of the formal sector carrying the 80 per cent of the rural sector in terms of GDP contribution to the country,” Wemin said.
“The only way to change our economic landscape is to make the 80 per cent rural populace productive and engaged in the life of PNG’s economic development,” he said.
Wemin said informal sector development was the way to go, with commercial, export-based agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
“PNG is an economy in transition from an 80 per cent to 20 per cent economy (80 per cent informal and 20 per cent formal) to a 50-50 economy where there is a balance between the formal and the informal sectors”.
Wemin said that the problem with the public service was that it was not productivity oriented. The structure, the policy and planning were in place but lack of performance accountability and monitoring were making the civil service weak.